Cerebellum volume and eyeblink conditioning in schizophrenia

Edwards, Chad R.; Newman, Sharlene; Bismark, Andrew; Skosnik, Patrick D.; O'Donnell, Brian F.; Shekhar, Anantha; Steinmetz, Joseph E.; Hetrick, William P.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.06.001

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 162, Issue 3 , Pages 185-194, 15 April 2008

Cerebellum volume and eyeblink conditioning in schizophrenia

Chad R. Edwards
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
Sharlene Newman
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
Andrew Bismark
- Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Patrick D. Skosnik
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
Brian F. O'Donnell
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Anantha Shekhar
- Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Joseph E. Steinmetz
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
William P. Hetrick
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Corresponding author. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN, USA. Tel.: +1 812 855 2620; fax: +1 812 855 4691.

Received 11 September 2006; received in revised form 30 March 2007; accepted 4 June 2007.

Abstract

Although accumulating evidence suggests that cerebellar abnormalities may be linked to the symptoms and course of schizophrenia, few studies have related structural and functional indices of cerebellar integrity. The present study examined the relationship between the volume of specific subregions of the cerebellum and cerebellar function, as measured by eyeblink conditioning (EBC). Nine individuals with schizophrenia and six healthy comparison participants completed structural magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and a delay EBC procedure. Volumetric measurements were taken for the whole brain, whole cerebellum, cerebellar anterior lobules I–V and posterior lobules VI–VII. The schizophrenia group had smaller cerebellar anterior lobes and exhibited impaired EBC relative to the comparison group. In the comparison group, larger anterior volume correlated with earlier conditioned response onset latencies and increased amplitudes of the unconditioned blink response during paired trials (i.e., when the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli co-occurred). The findings that smaller anterior cerebellar volumes and EBC impairments were associated with schizophrenia are consistent with non-human studies showing that anterior cerebellar abnormalities are associated with deficits in delay EBC. The lack of a significant correlation between indices of EBC and cerebellar volume within the schizophrenia group suggests an aberrant relationship between cerebellar structure and function.

Keywords: EBC, Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI